I could guess it from the file name - either I'm too old, or you're too young.

Any way, I don't have time for that Victorian-themed game. If I were to work on something on that theme, it'd be a time management meets Jane Austen with a dash of Dwarf Fortress -inspired narrative mechanics. I had a nice chat with a friend, and the idea seems promising.

If any of you've come across Regency Solitaire, it'd do what that did to PC solitaire, but to a different genre and gameplay.

We didn't even nail down any game mechanics, yet. Some sort of RPG-like stat system, equipment would be replaced by an assortment of dresses and hair-do's, and so on. The important thing would be that the player would try to influence NPCs moods, reactions, favours, alliances and dalliances, but things could go delightfully haywire. The goal would be to make the generated stories be so evocative that, when the player tells the story, it sounds like this, or close:

So, I created Emma, with the "poor aristocrat" background, "Fame" ambition and gave her all the singing talents. I was trying to go the singer route, hopefully all the way up to entertaining the royalty. In the very first gala I did pretty well, but then in the second one, I found out that there was an NPC singer with maxed charm AND influence (WTF?) AND the "angelic voice" talent... Obviously, she was way better. My only chance to fame was to ruin her.

I had to spend most of my starting rumour points to get a lead, but I found out she had half a heart-point for Jonathan, who was a non-inheriting son of a local knight. I started playing the matchmaker, inviting both to talk to me, praising them to each other etc, and she got to two hearts and he was at three, I think, and I hoped they'd elope, and then I found out that the richest local Count, who was my patron, heard the rumours about MY character inviting Jonathan for talks, and then Jonathan heard the rumours and instantly got a full heart towards me, and then she got jealous and got the "best the rival" temporary goal and started challenging my singing again, so...

[skip skip skip]

In the end, it took twelve years, a divorce and a duel-to-death before I got my rival and Jonathan back together! The duel was kinda risky, but she was near the "death by heartache" zone, so I was kinda rushed. It was so silly, I can't belive I wasted so much time on two NPCs, but hey, 12 years is pretty good for a Matchmaker record, eh? I kinda forgot about Emma's singing career though and she got the governess ending, but damn if it wasn't worth it!

Oh, and obviously Emma took care of their kids. I've put a save file aside, so if they ever implement the "reincarnation" thing for NPC kids I've got a char with amazing singer genes AND a singer governess with the "family friend" bonuses on the upbringing...

Do you have an idea of what the final character is going to look like? Or, the final game?

It's easier to model when you know that.

Do you have any 2d images or sketches to go by? it can be very simple. What is the shape of the character? The head? How thick are the limbs, how long? If there are eyes, mouth or other features, are they big or small? Just a few lines and a few shapes already give a lot of direction.

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If you to look at some environments simple, geometric, polygonal characters would fit, you could look at Timothy J. Reynolds' works. He's doing something with the muted color scheme I really like but don't understand and can't quite duplicate, but the base models are delightfully simple.

J. R. Schmidth's geometric landscapes have a similar simple but beautiful look. He puts in some sort of distortion modifier so that there's no straight surface to be found anywhere, and personally I find that a bit too distracting.

Do you have an idea of what the final character is going to look like? Or, the final game?

It's easier to model when you know that.

Do you have any 2d images or sketches to go by? it can be very simple. What is the shape of the character? The head? How thick are the limbs, how long? If there are eyes, mouth or other features, are they big or small? Just a few lines and a few shapes already give a lot of direction.

i don't work like that XD
what i did with this model was just use subdivision surface on a cube once and i thought it looked like a face and the i decided to make a character model out of it. and whilst i was working on it i thought like i need to make more games to get more experience so i thought of an fps game and made a design document. tommorow i think i'm gonna make a list of what i have to do and what i'm going to need to learn and in 3 weeks i think i'm officially going to start with that project (i'll finish the model in the meantime tough).
and i'm going to make sketches of course
and i know what the model is going to look like in my head

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If you to look at some environments simple, geometric, polygonal characters would fit, you could look at Timothy J. Reynolds' works. He's doing something with the muted color scheme I really like but don't understand and can't quite duplicate, but the base models are delightfully simple.

J. R. Schmidth's geometric landscapes have a similar simple but beautiful look. He puts in some sort of distortion modifier so that there's no straight surface to be found anywhere, and personally I find that a bit too distracting.

i like the second one the most because of the water. really that's the most beautifull thing about it!
and i've never been good at making maps.... my first map was too small and i made the mistake of joining the houses and the road with the ground so i couldn't change anything about it and that game project is kind of abandoned anyway so.....

thanks again for this! i really appreciate it that you kind of guide me and remind me of things i have to do and things i could do.

rodeje25 wrote:i don't work like that XD
what i did with this model was just use subdivision surface on a cube once and i thought it looked like a face and the i decided to make a character model out of it. and whilst i was working on it i thought like i need to make more games to get more experience so i thought of an fps game and made a design document. tommorow i think i'm gonna make a list of what i have to do and what i'm going to need to learn and in 3 weeks i think i'm officially going to start with that project (i'll finish the model in the meantime tough).
and i'm going to make sketches of course
and i know what the model is going to look like in my head

I do that sort of thing when I draw. I find shapes in random squibbles, and fill them out. It's fun, but it's a too random when you have a goal, or worse yet, when someone else gives you a goal. As I said, I'm bad at character concepts.

Since you have an idea in your head, and you're going to make sketches, it's close enough to what I suggested. You don't need to always start by sketching, but before you finish a model, it's faster to try out different shapes on paper, rather than on a 3D program.

For a first-person game, remember that the player character is basically a pair of floating hands, or even just a floating gun or other thing. If you want to model a character that chases another, maybe consider 3rd person.

rodeje25 wrote:What if i told you there will be enemies as well? Otherwise yes i know it's gonna be a floating pair of arms but i still wonder how they do that in online multiplayer games.

Trickery, I assume.

Player A sees hand-model-A, and character-models B, C, D and so on.
Player B sees hand-model-B, and character-models A, C, D and so on.

I don't think the animations don't need to match perfectly, except, possibly, in timing (for example, when throwing a grenade, the time when the grenade flies out has to match exactly). They just have to look belieavable enough.